It's not a surprise at all. Kerry Elder, who is in charge of RPO installations, wimped out under the pressure of business owners thinking their customers have first dibs on residential parking spaces. He even admitted to one resident the media attention on RPO all over Dallas was making his job a little more difficult. Instead of going out to neighborhoods and promoting RPO as a way to save a street from crime, trash and noise, he's actively blocking every RPO application until the residents roll over and die.

In a story about the opening of Trader Joe's Fort Worth, Madison Partners (which owns the property), claims the store will still open in Spring 2013.

The developer of the Greenville Avenue store says it’s going to help revitalize one of Dallas’ older neighborhoods.

“Trader Joe’s is going to have a huge and positive impact on the revitalization of Lower Greenville,” said Jon Hetzel of Madison Partners. “We believe their presence in this location will benefit the whole East Dallas area.”

Madison Partners owns other buildings along Lower Greenville, and a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market is opening a block away later this year.

The store at 2001 Greenville Ave. will be built close to the sidewalk, and a small building on the site will be demolished to make room for parking. The property has room for additional uses, Hetzel said. “The proximity to Trader Joe’s has kindled a lot of interest from some very cool tenants.”

Madison Partners is also “actively working” on a food truck park as part of the overall project, he said.

Stonelake Capital Partners, an Austin-based investment firm, is looking to rezone property it owns on the northeast corner of Skillman and Oram, across from Redenta's Garden.

Neighborhood resident Olive Talley has helped organize meetings between Stonelake representative Robert Baldwin and more than 20 neighbors to discuss the rezoning request. They have a lot of concerns because this particular block bumps right up to homes, she says.

Talley expressed concern that, among other things, a restaurant would be constructed atop the building. This type of development could lead to increased traffic, noise and parking issues, she says.

"We don't want this [neighborhood] to become another Lower Greenville Avenue," Talley says.

Way back in 2003, BD took a walk down Lowest Greenville Avenue, carrying a cheap little digital camera, to take a picture of every business on the street.

Some of these closed down pretty fast, and some made it throught the 2010 rezoning debacle. And yes, some of them were scumbars, and some were owned by people who cared about their customers and their community.